Evolution of a 20-something: Polymoth to polymath

health

Stepped on the scales this morning for the first time in about three weeks, and I was up higher than I’ve been in a long time: 155.4 lbs.

Now, given that I thought I was around 150, you might not think that’s bad. And it’s not! Plenty of people see their weight fluctuating easily by 5 lbs depending on what they’ve eaten, hormones/time of month, time of day etc. However, I am not one of those people. Or at least, I was keeping track of how my weight was fluctuating – previously, if I was on a run of having been pretty healthy, got enough sleep etc, I’d be about 148 first thing in the morning. If I was on my period, it’d reach a high of 153. Usually was around 150-151. So for it to be at 155 when I’m not on my period, it’s a warning signal.

It’s saying “what were you expecting, that four days of burgers in a row followed by giant plates of gnocchi and desserts weren’t going to do anything? They’re hardly healthy eating!” that I kind of let my eating get away from me a bit. My occasional treats weren’t so occasional, and I started to see fewer and fewer vegetables in my diet. I know I wasn’t planning on letting weight be the only factor I was looking at over this 100 days (30 of which I’ve wasted by not really doing what I was planning on doing), but as I’ve exercised less and less as the weeks have gone on too, I know that I haven’t just suddenly gained muscle mass.

Now there’s obviously still a chance that I’m bloated for some reason today. It could be lower tomorrow. But I still think my average is higher than it was at the start of this challenge. So let’s have a look at measurements to get a proper view on things.

Originally I started to write this post about a week before I started, and added notes here and there as time went on. But I seem to have picked the busiest part of my September to start this, so my original intentions of posting before the start date, on the start date and then several days later have culminated into me just posting once several days late. But I do think it’s a good idea to look at where I was mentally before this started, so we’re going back in time for the rest of this post..

So what does healthy living look like, and how will I keep track of what I’m doing?

To start with, in a similar vein to John Green I’m not going to place the main focus on my weight. Yes, I would like to lose some, but it’s not overly important – I’m currently considered a healthy weight, albeit close to the top of the range. It’s also just one factor amidst myriad others, and you can definitely be unhealthy and lose weight!

Instead, I’d like to see if I can gain strength and increase my flexibility. I plan on taking my measurements as I’d like to lower my body fat percentage and I think that’s probably the best way to start noticing if my body is changing shape/composition. But I’d also like to see if my skin improves, how my energy levels are affected, and even if my moods change. This will be a holistic healthy 100 days.

I plan to track this in a number of ways. Primarily I will write about my experience here, sharing both metrics and how I’m feeling and what I’m doing. I plan to keep track of metrics in a spreadsheet on google where I will track my weight and measurements and whether I’ve done the things I’m supposed to that day. I also want to share photos of how I’m eating on my Instagram to help me with accountability and I will probably moan a lot on my Tumblr in the meantime. For measuring flexibility, as well as noting down what I notice, I may also film myself periodically doing the same yoga routine so I can literally see how I improve.

From today, Tuesday 20th September 2016 (clearly not the date the above photo was taken), there are 103 days until January 1st.

I’ve been thinking recently about how much I feel I’ve let myself go and got into bad, unhealthy habits. Yes, I’ve been walking more recently, but I don’t really have a good consistent exercise habit, and my food habits have become appalling. I’ve not gained weight noticeably on the scales – except I’m nearly half a stone heavier than I was this time last year and I’ve not lost anything in months at all and actually the scales say my average weight is slowly creeping up – not by much, but it’s moving up – but I’ve noticeably gained some weight on my face and my arms feel softer and bigger etc.

Just as I was thinking about this I saw that John Green is going to start a 100 days thing (https://www.youtube.com/100days) in which he and a friend see what it’s really like to live healthily for 100 days. The longest I’ve ever gone is a month, and I felt pretty good after that – at the moment I can hardly stick to half a day. I keep saying I’ll do this or that and then instantly not doing it.

I remember reading once that life – and goal setting – is like laying bricks. Whether you want to build a cottage or a cathedral you have to put down just one brick at a time. There are no short-cuts, it just has to be done. Eventually you’ll build what you’re trying to build.

One of the dangers with this, of course, is that you can both lose sight of the bigger picture for focussing on the small things, and also get overwhelmed with how long the journey seems to be taking; how long you’re going to have to do what you’re doing in order to get there.

Recently I think I’ve been having a problem with the latter issue and have been focussing on the wrong things. I’ve talked about how I let things go around Christmas and fell into bad habits, and I link that often in my mind with the fact that I haven’t really lost any weight since this time last year. So in the last month or so, I’ve been thinking a lot about how can I lose the weight – should I be counting calories, paying more attention to portion size, fitting in a few more workouts etc… I’ve been so focussed on what can I do to lose the weight now that I’ve not really been thinking about it in a long-term sustainable way.